Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 March 2023
646. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the amount spent by the HSE and his Department per month on the implementation and practical costs of the Covid vaccine passport both for foreign travel and for public houses and restaurants in each of the past three years, in tabular form. [11419/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraIreland was legally obliged under an EU regulation to provide EU Digital Covid Certificates (DCCs) to everyone who received a Covid vaccination in Ireland. Furthermore, Irish citizens who received an EU recognised vaccine in another country, where suitable evidence could be provided, were also entitled to a DCC.
The EU Digital Covid Certificate (aka Covid Passport) was implemented using a data feed from the national Covid vaccination system (COVAX), developed and operated by the HSE. The modifications required to Covax were minimal and hence development costs were minor and not tracked separately.
The department did incur costs associated with Covid passports that were issued by post and where they were 'returned to sender'. These costs are identified in the table below (the sender was identified as the department of health even though paper based certs were posted out by Revenue who offered the department support with printing and posting of certs because they were set up operationally to do that work during the pandemic).
|
An Post invoices |
€ |
|
29/07/2021 |
€10,231.25 |
|
25/03/2022 |
€165.00 |
|
30/06/2022 |
€4.60 |
|
Total |
€10,400.85 |
Existing infrastructure was used to email Covid passports to the majority of those who received a vaccination, hence no additional cost was incurred for emailed passports. Paper certificates/passports were issued by post where an email address was not provided or where an individual expressed a preference to receive their certificate by post. To support the department, Revenue printed all paper certificates and covered the cost of all postage.
The department also stood up a helpline and on line portal to allow people to update their details, request a re-issue of certs and deal with other queries associated with Covid certificates (passports).
